Details

Leaving sessions open indefinitely is a major security risk. An attacker can easily use an already authenticated session to access the hosted application as the previously authenticated user.

Timeouts for completing the TLS handshake, receiving the request headers and/or the request body from the client. If the client fails to complete each of these stages within the configured time, a 408 REQUEST TIME OUT error is sent.

For SSL virtual hosts, the handshake timeout values is the time needed to do the initial SSL handshake. If the user’s browser is configured to query certificate revocation lists and the CRL server is not reachable, the initial SSL handshake may take a significant time until the browser gives up waiting for the CRL. Therefore the handshake timeout should take this possible overhead into consideration for SSL virtual hosts (if necessary). The body timeout values include the time needed for SSL renegotiation (if necessary).

Solution

Edit the <'INSTALL PATH'>confhttpd.conf file and load the ‘mod_reqtimeout’ module.

Set the ‘RequestReadTimeout’ directive to a value compatible with the organization’s operations.

Restart the Apache service.

Supportive Information

The following resource is also helpful.

• https://dl.dod.cyber.mil/wp-content/uploads/stigs/zip/U_Apache_Server_2-4_Windows_Y21M10_STIG.zip

This security hardening control applies to the following category of controls within NIST 800-53: Access Control.This control applies to the following type of system Windows.

References

• 800-53|AC-12
• CAT|II
• CCI|CCI-002361
• Rule-ID|SV-214342r505936_rule
• STIG-ID|AS24-W1-000650
• STIG-Legacy|SV-102523
• STIG-Legacy|V-92435
• Vuln-ID|V-214342

Source

• Tenable.com/audits